Thursday, December 29, 2005

I got several comments over the last couple of weeks but I couldn't see any of them because my settings were incorrect. I think it's fixed now. Since I like to respond to comments, I'll try go back and answer as many as I can a little later.

In my previous post, I did a FIP analysis of American League starting pitchers in 2005. Today, I’ll look at the relievers.There were 103 primary relievers (more relief appearances than starts) with 30 or more innings pitched in 2005. The first table below lists Detroit Tiger relievers in 2005 plus Todd Jones. The second table lists all 103 qualifiers in the league.

In both tables, the key variables are ERA, FIP ERA and FIP-ERA.All are defined in the previous article linked above.Since relievers pitch fewer innings than starters, all of these statistics are less reliable for relievers and should be interpreted with a little more caution.

The Tiger’s best relief pitcher last year was Kyle Farnsworth (4th in the league with a FIP ERA of 2.27).His actual ERA (2.32) was almost the same.

Of those pitchers still on the team heading into 2006, most had FIP ERAs which were substantially higher than their actual ERAs.This includes Fernando Rodney (3.93 versus 2.86), Jamie Walker (4.09 versus 3.70), Craig Dingman ( 4.53 versus 3.66), Chris Spurling (4.82 versus 3.44) and Franklyn German (5.40 versus 3.66).Since FIP ERA is a better predictor of future performance than actual ERA, this may not be a good sign for next year.Keep in mind though that the sample sizes for relievers are small.It’s interesting to note that most of these relievers received more fielding support than the average Tiger starter.

Recently acquired reliever Todd Jones had a good year whether you look at FIP ERA (2.36) or actual ERA (2.10).He is not included in the list of qualifiers because he was in the National League last year.